Leon completed the upgrade to his retrofitted shelter in the afternoon.

After that, he took one of the Flux Crystal Spears in his storage before going outside to hunt for meat.

Most people don't dare make meat a daily food simply because the main source of meat in Neo-Tokara is Neon Beasts, and these were beasts that were corrupted by ADE.

Unless specially processed, by hunting and regularly eating meat from Neon Beasts, Ascended can also get gradually corrupted.

In Neo-Tokara, eating meat regularly was willingly courting death.

Leon was perhaps the only Ascended in existence who could live for an extended period in the fringe of the Wastes.

With Temporal Anomaly, he was immune to ADE corruption, both the corruption and radiation in the atmosphere in the fringe of the Wastes and the corruption that could be gotten through eating the meat of Neon Beasts.

'Uh… I still don't know if I'll turn into a Neon Beast if I fail a Trial'. He chuckled. 'Maybe next time'.

It didn't take long for him to find a suitable target.

After over a week staying in the fringe of the Wastes, focusing on fortifying his shelter and practicing his new Mechanist abilities, he already hunted Neon Beasts for meat so many times that he was now good at it.

He was an experienced hunter now and this time, his target was his favorite game again, a Fire Fox.

Compared to most Neon Beasts in these parts, Fire Fox didn't mutate to integrate mechanical parts into their bodies.

These were still fully biological beings with a lot of flesh.

This was why Leon loved them as his hunting targets. Also, he loved them because their meat when roasted was extremely sweet and succulent.

Leon found the Fox with bright orange fur prowling at the corner of the scrapyard and immediately he crouched low to hide himself.

He waited calmly while tracking the beast with his eyes as it sniffed the scrapyard, gradually moving in his direction as if it was searching for something, and then BAM!

Leon erupted from his hiding spot and struck!

Unlike most Neon Beasts in this region, Fire Fox were cowardly. They were rabid and corrupted, but the ADE corruption couldn't curb their innate nature. They ran at the slight sight of danger despite their ability to coat their teeth with fire to tear through flesh and metal.

The moment the Fire Fox noticed the commotion, it turned and bolted but knowing the tendencies of this Beast already, Leon didn't try to outpace it.

It was too swift even for him.

Instead, he simply aimed with the Flux Crystal Spear and threw it at the rapidly running Neon Beast.

BAM!

The Spear impaled right through the torso of the Fox, pinning it to the ground as it bled bright red blood and whimpered.

It jerked slightly before going still.

It was dead.

DING!

~----~

[You have killed a Neon Beast: Fire Fox]

~----~

With a grin on his face, Leon approached the Fox, pulled out his dagger before quickly cutting its neck and draining the excess blood.

Only after that did he drag the beast and quickly leave the vicinity.

A few minutes later, back in his shelter, the aroma of roasted meat filled the underground shelter as Leon salivated.

Without hesitation, he dove in and started eating.

Since the forge area was close to the computer area, as he ate, he looked at his laptop and called out. "Davis, show me the map of Neo-Tokara again".

The moment he spoke, the screen of the laptop flashed with light and a virtual projection appeared in front of him.

Yes, he just spoke to his laptop.

Leon communicated with his laptop through an A.I, Davis. Davis was his personal A.I that he coded.

During the past week, Leon was not just focused on optimizing blueprints, crafting weapons, and upgrading his shelter, he spent a chunk of this time mapping the code blueprint to create his first A.I unit.

When Leon became an E Rank Neo Mechanist, alongside the first 2 abilities that he unlocked- Nanofabrication and Miniaturization, he also unlocked a blueprint, a Chip.

With a Chip, Leon got the core element he needed to create smartphones, laptops, and most importantly, to create an A.I unit.

With his laptop, he spent a large chunk of the last week writing an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) A.I program that was separate from the System and entirely his.

Due to his fragmented memories, writing the code to create an A.I system was harder than he expected but within a week, he managed to do it.

Davis was designed specifically for neural network workloads. With it, he could connect and communicate with all his constructs that had neural technology efficiently.

Of all his creations as a Mechanist so far, Davis was undoubtedly his greatest creation and the System acknowledged it, rewarding him with a whopping 100 Data Points for it.

Considering that he was not a NetRunner and still managed to create an A.I system showed just how versatile and ingenious he was.

And this was also the reason why the Omnicore Federation had so many restrictions placed on Mechanists and NetRunners.

In a world of A.I Constructs where even the leader of the greatest faction in the world was an A.I Construct, it was understandable that the Federation put bans on engineers creating entirely new A.I systems.

But what concerned Leon with Omnicore regulations?

From the beginning since his awakening, he got exposed to people who hated the Federation with passion. And after the events in Community G, it was no longer second-hand hatred, he now personally hated the Federation too.

So he didn't really give a damn about their regulations.

Leon focused on the holographic projection that was in front of him, it was the map of Neo-Tokara.

After constructing his smartphone, then his laptop and gaining access to the psionic network, Leon went on an internet surfing spree.

Afterall, he knew too little about this world despite how much he already learned from Talia's crew. With access to the internet, even if the Federation censored a lot of information, Leon expected to still learn a lot and he was right.

One of the things he saw in the past week was the full map of Neo-Tokara.

[NEO-TOKARA – Main Holographic World Map]

Through the map, Leon learned for the first time that the world is actually a singular landmass roughly 2 million square kilometers in size.

Just 2 million square kilometers!

The world was far smaller than he expected.

Beyond the singular landmass representing Neo-Tokara is an endless ocean that covered the rest of the whole world.

The first time he learned the truth, Leon remembered how shocked he was. His whole expectations of this world were turned upside down.

And despite his fragmented memories, he still had certain instinctual recollections; he could not help but think. 'Is this really Earth?'

Neo-Tokara was just a confusing mess of contradictions.

One moment, he would find evidence pointing to the fact that this was likely the world where he lived his past life. And then, the next moment, another evidence would shatter all his past beliefs, pointing out that this world is likely not Earth.

Neo-Tokara is divided into 5 controlled zones plus the Wastes and the Abyssal Scar.

As depicted in the map, the Abyssal Scar is a seemingly bottomless abyss that cuts across the landmass from East to West.

The ocean surrounds the landmass from all sides.

Major landmarks in the world are the Eastern Mountain Wall, the Coastal Megopolis, and the Twin River Grid.

The Eastern Mountain Wall is a massive uplift that formed jagged mountain walls, spreading throughout almost the entire Eastern Expanse.

The Coastal Megopolis is also known as the Sea Wall Cities, it is the singular most impressive technological marvel of the Omnicore Federation.

It's a wall of massive Coastline Cities that stretch along the reinforced Southern coastline.

As for the Twin River Grid, they're the artery of the realm. The Twin Rivers are massive hydro-channels that crossed paths to form a Y-shaped river grid; it's partially engineered by the Federation to prevent inland flooding.

The Omnicore Federation occupies the center of the planet, building their largest territory and dominion in the Central Belt.

The Omnicore Federation has multiple Towns and 4 Cities in the Central Belt, 3 Megacities and a Major City. The Megacities were Red Meridian, Neo-Solace, and Spire Prime which is also the capital city of the Omnicore Federation.

The singular Major City of the Federation is Crown Gate.

Neo-Solace is the Federation's border City that borders the Freegrid Collective's Drift Haven to the West, Red Meridian borders the Eastern Mountain Wall to the East, while Crown Gate borders the Abyssal Scar slightly to the North.

Spire Prime stands in the middle of the Omnicore Empire.

The Abyssal Scar cuts through the land, dividing the Central Belt and other regions from the isolated territories of the Synth Order in the Northern Reach.

The other half of the Federation's Empire is the Coastal Megopolis in the Southern Coastline. The Federation has 4 more cities there: Tidebreak, Aegis Wharf, Harbor-9, and Breaker's Wharf.

In the Northern Reach, the Synth Order has multiple Towns but they only have 3 cities in Polar Array, Nexus Crown, and Zenith Forge. Nexus Crown is the capital city of the Synth Order.

In the Western Fringe, the 3 cities of the Freegrid Collective are Canyon Hub, Iron Reef, and Drift Haven. Iron Reef is the capital city of the Collective.

In the Southern Biome, the 3 cities of the Geneforge Clans are Leviathan Quay, Sprawl Delta, and Verdanthold. Verdanthold is the capital city.

Due to the existence of the Coastal Megopolis, the territory of the Geneforge Clans is squashed in between the two territories of the Omnicore Federation in the Central Belt and the Southern Coastline.

Their ability to stay surviving is a testament to the prowess of the Geneforge Clans, it also highlighted their adaptability and survivability.

Across the jagged mountain ranges of the Eastern Mountain Wall, the Reclaimer Church also has 3 isolated cities: Sanctum-Nine, Pilgrim's Rise, and Cathedral Array.

Sanctum-Nine is the capital city of the Reclaimer Church where the Cathedral of Humanity resides.

These were all the major cities and landmarks of the world depicted in the map, and sprinkled in between were the Wastes.

Once Leon was done eating, he stood up and touched a particular spot of the projected map in the Southern Biome.

[Leviathan Quay]

He smiled. "This is my next destination".

With that, he waved the holographic projection of the map off and had a nap to let his food digest.

Only after that did he stand up and arrange his leather bag to leave. First, he rummaged through his storage.

He picked 5 Flux Crystal Spears, the 5 jury-rigged bombs, 2 sword drones, the 3 regular C-5 drones, 5 daggers, the QX-07 Air Gun Rifle, the Terra Nova 71 Rifle, and 5 kinetic pistols.

He kept the smaller pistols, daggers, C-5 drones, and jury-rigged bombs in the bag, then he arranged the others on top the wooden table before placing his hand over them.

Miniaturization!

BZZZ!

His grayish white ADE flared, covering the weapons in the table and transforming them in a deeper level.

Less than a minute later, all the weapons became extremely tiny.

With a grin on his face, Leon put them all into the leather bag before wearing it on his back, then he walked towards where he kept the Karaki CT-3X super bike.

He carried the super bike outside, then he looked into the horizon.

"It's time to leave".

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